Some of you may have seen me posting a lot of portraits lately, but I'm really trying to get better at them and see no other way to do so then to post here for you to C&C them haha. So thank you in advance for putting up with my less than good portraits. I will probably be posting more in the next few days lol. edit- just tried something different with my brother haha. not sure on the outcome
Start reading up on various lighting setups and ways to accomplish them. Seems that the pic of your brother you were going to a hatchet look. Start reading and learning on top of shooting and practicing
other then b&w, i think its a step backwards - look at kid's face --> split lighting doesn't do it for him in this case. EXAMPLE 1